Authority Rainmaker 2015: Conference Peaks & Previews

Did you know that there are 53 mountains in Colorado with an elevation over 14,000 feet? Known as the “Fourteeners”, ascending all of these peaks is a lifelong goal for many avid climbers.

What better setting to learn about Online Marketing from the authorities on the subject. This year, Copyblogger’s Authority Rainmaker 2015 will be held in Denver Colorado, with a full view of the rocky mountain peaks for visitors to take in. The TopRank Marketing team will be represented at the conference by Lee Odden, Alexis Hall and me, Evan Prokop.

In addition to majestic scenery, great food and entertainment of downtown Denver, we can’t wait to learn from some of the leading authorities on online marketing on how they recommend marketers take their craft to new heights.

Here is a “mountainous” preview of just a few things we’re looking forward to at the conference:

Mount Elbert – The Tallest of the Fourteeners

Mount Elbert may be the tallest peak in Colorado, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s the best. As many brands continue to ramp up their content marketing efforts, it’s increasingly important to distinguish between content that is “tall” and content that is “great”.

Tall content may attract a lot of eyeballs, but what does that truly mean to your business? Popularity doesn’t guarantee effectiveness and the “best” content is that which delivers real ROI.

Ann Handley, Chief Marketing Officer at Marketing Profs, promises to deliver when it comes to differentiating between popular and truly effective content. Effective content does more than create conversation, it generates traffic which impacts business objectives. Content that inspires your target audience can engage core customers, attract a new prospect or drive visitors to the toward the bottom of the funnel. That’s the kind of content every business should aspire to.

We’re really looking forward to Ann’s insights on creating content which engages and drives your target audience to actions. We’re also looking forward to tips on how to measure the effectiveness of content marketing (i.e. how do we know if the right audience is reading and engaging with our content, and which content is it?).

Pikes Peak – Inspiration for America the Beautiful

Session: How to Perform Witchcraft: The Art and Science of Fascination in Your Marketing

When it comes to taking people’s breath away, Pikes Peak has it nailed. Have you seen the view?

But how does the average brand fascinate their audience? Well, we’re going to find out in Sally Hogsheads highly anticipated session that promises to teach us how to make our marketing and brand more captivating.

Consumers today have more information in front of them than ever before. With a few key strokes they can find millions of results related to a topic or product category. More options means a greater need to differentiate your brand from the competition. And that is where fascination comes into play.

If you can fascinate your customers, they will be more interested in what you have to say, more engaged with your brand and more likely to be inspired to perform desired actions.

Sound like unbelievable? Maybe, but we looking forward to learning more from Sally about the art of being fascinating.

Longs Peak – The Most Routes to the Summit

Longs Peak is one of the most popular mountains in Colorado, and for good reason. Coming in less than 100 ft shy of the elevation of Mount Elbert, Longs is said to have more climbing routes than any of the other Fourteeners.

Like Longs Peak, businesses have been attempting to climb to the top of the search results for as long as search engines have existed and have traversed a diverse range of routes to get there. Some businesses took a practical and sustainable approach with customer focused keyword research, quality content and technical site optimization and are continuing to be rewarded for it. Others unfortunately took dangerous shortcuts by employing tactics like link spamming or keyword stuffing and are in major trouble today.

To say there have been major changes in search marketing in recent times would be a big understatement. From the increased importance of semantic search brought about by Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update, to the rush to achieve mobile optimization before the Mobile Friendly update (also referred to as ‘Mobilegeddon’ by the more alarmist), Google has definitely kept the SEO industry on its toes.

Founding editor of Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan has been an authoritative voice in the search marketing industry for nearly two decades, so he’s certainly seen and weathered plenty of big changes since the inception of search.

We’re looking forward to hearing his take on the current state of search marketing and how he recommends search marketers and brands prepare for the future.

Maroon Peak – The Most Photographed, But Also One of the Most Difficult to Summit

Content marketing has already achieved a well-earned position near the top of most digital marketers list of priorities and accordingly to research from Curata, 71% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets in 2015.

Like the majestic Maroon Peak, it’s easy to stand back and admire the heights that many brands have managed to reach with their content, but getting to the summit yourself can be an arduous journey.

Widely considered to be an authority in all things content, Joe Pulizzi has been educating marketers and businesses for years on how to do content marketing right through books, speaking engagements, podcasts and much more.

Joe is planning to show how businesses can build a massive audience in six steps. We can’t wait to hear what they are.

TopRank Marketing Will Be Covering Authority Rainmaker 2015

These are just a few highlights of what we’re looking forward to at Authority Rainmaker, but it wasn’t an easy choice as nearly every session looks interesting.

You can get a great preview of the conference from the interviews, group post and the conference eBook we produced for Copyblogger leading up to the event: